Article by: Maria Cundari
Note: This story contains spoilers for ‘To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You.’
The perfect coming of age movie has arrived on Netflix. ‘To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You,’ was released Feb 12, 2020, finally giving fans of the first film, ‘To All the Boys I Have Loved,’ (2018) the perfect happy ending.
The movie follows Lara Jean Covey (Lana Condor) and her boyfriend Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo) as they begin their next year of high school. Peter and Lara Jean meet unexpectedly in the first film. In the movie Lara Jean, after her younger sister sends her secret love letters in which she confided her feelings, to the boys that they were addressed to.
Her younger sister, Kitty, had sent out Peter’s letter along with the four others addressed to the boys. Throughout the movie Lara Jean and Peter slowly begin to fall for each other because they were pretending to be a couple to make Peter’s ex-girlfriend jealous. They spent a lot of time together and he became her perfect “fake boyfriend.”
At the end of the movie, Lara Jean finally tells Peter how she feels by writing yet another love letter. The music swells, they kiss, and then walk off into the sunset on their high school’s Lacrosse field. The more realistic and relatable aspects of teenage romance are in the second film. Lara Jean and Peter go on their first real date as a couple. During the date they promise not to ever break each other's hearts, which everyone knows is inevitable. Everything is going smoothly, until Lara Jean receives a letter from her childhood crush, John Ambrose McClaren (Jordan Fisher) responding to her love letter. John Ambrose and Lara Jean both end up volunteering at a retirement home, and she realizes how much she has in common with him. They grow closer and closer while they work together, much to Peter’s dismay.
This movie shows just how emotional and difficult young adult relationships can be. Lara Jean is happily in a relationship with Peter, but she is constantly worried about his ex-girlfriend sneaking her way back into his life--while he is also uneasy about her hanging out with John Ambrose. These two individuals lack the trust you need to have with your counterpart in the relationship . We get an inside look into Lara Jean’s head throughout the movie because she is the narrator and everything is meant to be seen through her perspective. From this we know she has conflicting feelings about being Peter, and undecided feelings about John Ambrose. She fantasizes about him and what they could’ve been if he had responded to her love letter sooner.
Peter accuses Lara Jean of keeping her “options open,” because she didn’t tell John Ambrose that she was taken. In my opinion, she wasn’t doing that with the intention of leading John Ambrose on or to hurt Peter. Lara Jean has never had two guys interested in her at once so this situation is new for her.
Lara Jean kisses John Ambrose and realizes he's not the one for her. She reunites with Peter and once again they kiss and make up. This was the intended ending all along, the two were meant to end up together no matter who came between them.
Unlike most romantic movies this one paints the picture of what teenage girls may be going through in their lives. I can personally relate with Lara Jean because I felt similar to her in high school. I always wondered how it would be to be in a serious relationship and if once that happened, would I be happy? Or, would I wonder what could have been with someone else?
Let us know in the comments what you think about Lara Jean and her decision of choosing Peter, did she make the right choice?
Comments